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September is Food Round Up Month for Sunrise Your donations help supply Sunrise Children's Services campuses and foster homes purchase groceries for the coming year! The below pages require Adobe Acrobat Reader - available as a free download at www.adobe.com Printable Food Roundup bulletin inserts Printable "Top 5 Reasons to give grocery gift cards" Please consider purchasing gift cards from major retailers such as Kroger and Wal-Mart for Food Round-Up instead of non-perishable food items. Our programs and foster families can use the gift cards throughout the year to purchase exactly what they need in manageable amounts. They can use the cards to buy perishable items such as meat, dairy, produce, and baked goods. They can also meet the young people's personal needs for shampoo, toothpaste, shaving supplies, acne face washes and creams, etc. Monetary donations are also welcome. These can be used to buy food at discount prices through bulk suppliers such as Sysco or Gordon Food Service for our residential programs. Frequently Asked Questions about Food Round-Up Does Sunrise still need donations? Yes! Sunrise Children's Services still needs your help! Every day we care for nearly 400 children and teens. Young people in our 10 residential facilities and Sunrise's foster homes benefit from the donations you make through Rood Round-Up. Your donations also help low income families served through Cornerstone Counseling, the Youth Support Center and IMPACT Plus. If more children are in foster care and the residential campuses are smaller, why does Sunrise still need food donations? The children in foster homes are still in Sunrise's care. They are in Sunrise- supported foster homes...over 100 of them statewide. Sunrise foster families often have children of their own, along with 1 or 2 teenage foster children. Anyone who has tried to keep a growing teenager fed knows how much food the require. It is not uncommon for a foster family to have a weekly grocery bill of $200 or more! Even though the residential campuses are smaller than they were a few years ago, there are up to 150 teenagers living there every day. It takes a lot of food to feed them. Why is Sunrise asking churches to consider donating grocery gift cards instead of canned goods and other non-perishable foods? Sunrise is phasing out the huge campuses with lots of buildings. Our new, smaller facilities and foster homes are more efficient and healthier for the children, but have less storage space. We just don't have the space to accommodate the huge influx of food that comes with an annual food drive. Grocery gift cards are a great way to help Sunrise without overloading our storage facilities. And gift cards are easier for churches and pick-up points to handle, as well. An envelope filled with gift cards is much easier to carry than boxes and boxes of canned goods! Gift cards are available in any amount. They are easy for you to mail to Sunrise, easy for us to store and allow us to purchase what we need, when we need it. Will there be a food pick-up in October? No, there will not be a food pick-up this year. Individuals who prefer to donate canned goods and other non-perishable foods may still do so and deliver them to the nearest Sunrise program (For a complete list of Sunrise programs statewide, go to the Services page. Addresses and phone numbers for each program are listed on the program's individual web page). However, the preferred option is grocery gift cards: they are easier for our volunteers to handle (no heavy lifting, sorting and inventorying!); they are easier for you to handle (again, no heavy lifting and hauling!); and they are easy to distribute to Sunrise programs and they don't take up a lot of storage space. Gift cards can be used anytime without going out of date as some donated foods do. By law we cannot use any food past its printed expiration date. Cards can be used to purchase whatever is needed, including produce, dairy, meat and bakery products, as it is needed to reduce waste. If you choose to donate food instead of gift cards, please refer to Sunrise's list of most wanted items. There is always a need for green beans, peanut butter, ketchup, cereal, spaghetti sauce and all the old favorites. So, no, we will not pick up food this fall. However, we welcome any and all donations but ask that non-perishable food items be taken to the nearest Sunrise program. How can I help Sunrise meet their material needs other than through the annual food round-up? Keep in touch with Sunrise programs in your area throughout the year. Find out what items they need most. Your church or group can collect the items and make a visit to the program to deliver the donation. It's a great way for you to get to know the young people who live there and become more involved in their lives. For a complete list of Sunrise programs statewide, go to the Services page. Addresses and phone numbers for each program are listed on the program's individual web page. A "Help Wanted" list of needed items is printed in The Messenger or you can contact Sunrise for a list. When mailing gift cards or monetary donations to Sunrise, please let us know who the donation is from and the dollar amount of the card. Churches should receive a packet with several carbonless receipts and an envelope for this purpose. More will be provided upon request. Please mail Food Round-Up donations to: Sunrise Children's Services For more information, call (800) 456-1386 or email info@sunrise.org. Thank you for your support!
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